Page 38 of Lone Star Longing
“No, I can do this.” She was going to have to do more on her own, harder things than this. “You go do what you need, and I’ll give you a call when I’m done.”
“Lacey, I hate sending you in there by yourself.”
Well, that was more than the baby’s father cared. “It’s okay, really. Enough that you drove me here, and kept my mind off my anxiety.”
He turned into the parking lot of the medical center. She wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on her skirt as she tried to spot her doctor’s name on the building.
“There it is. You can let me out here.”
He slowed the truck and she gathered her purse, then popped the lock and slid out when he’d barely stopped.
“Thank you,” she said, afraid that if she so much as looked back over her shoulder, she would take him up on his offer to go in with her. She didn't even wait for him to drive off before she hurried up the sidewalk and into the building.
The building was long and low, the front glassed in, with some angled red brick walls slanting toward the sidewalk, like it was built decades ago to look modern. She tugged at the heavy glass door, stepped into blasting air conditioning, and double-checked the directory for Dr. Fredrick’s office.
The office was nice, updated with navy print sofas and chairs lining the terra cotta colored walls. Nearly every couch was full, but a couple of empty chairs remained. But first she crossed the room to check in, then squeezed her way between a woman who looked about her dad’s age and another woman who was hugely pregnant and hugely uncomfortable, if the shifting and sighing was any indication.
The updated decor, however, didn't include fans, and the air was stifling. If Lacey was hot she couldn't imagine how hot the woman beside her was.
As Lacey looked around, she noticed none of them were accompanied by their husbands or partners. Glad she didn't invite Beck in, she still wondered at the lack of men’s interest in the pregnancy. She knew Jesse would never be here, so the idea that Beck had even offered seemed more special now.
She didn't have to wait too long in the waiting room, since she’d filled out her paperwork online, but once she was back in the exam room, time dragged. She would much rather be in the waiting room watching people. She didn't get to do that very often.
So she flipped through the magazines, scrolled through her phone, listened to doors up and down the hall open and close, and listened for footsteps.
Finally the doctor walked in, a middle-aged woman with a purple streak in her hair.
“Dr. Fredrick, nice to meet you,” Lacey said. She’d chosen a woman on purpose, but the woman’s age, and her inability to give in to that age, charmed Lacey.
“Lacey, what a lovely name. Tell me about yourself.”
Now she knew why she’d had to wait as she stumbled over what the woman might want to know.
“First pregnancy, probably close to my second trimester. The father is overseas, but he was here around Valentine’s Day, so conception is a pretty narrow window. I’m twenty eight, from Broken Wheel, and I’m a home health care provider.”
Dr. Fredrick’s eyes widened. “That’s a good job. A hard job. You have enough patients in a small town like Wagon Wheel?”
“Broken Wheel,” Lacey corrected. “I have six patients. Keeps me plenty busy.”
“You do heavy lifting, things like that?”
“Not too bad. I have some patients that depend on me to get around, but they also have a walker or a cane, so I don't bear all the weight. I do that, check their blood pressure and sugars, things like that, and then I clean their houses. Just light housework, you know, to keep them healthy. And meal prep.”
“That sounds like you keep busy. First pregnancy, you said. You live alone?”
“With my dad. Not a lot of single-occupant dwellings in town, and it just makes sense.”
“Will he help you with the baby? It’s best to have some kind of support, especially the first few months, especially your first baby.”
“Oh, yeah, he’ll help. I think he’s actually getting excited about it.”
Dr. Fredrick smiled. “It happens. First grandchild?”
“No, but the first that will be close enough for him to really know. The others are spread out over Texas.”
“Well, let’s get you on the table and see how things are progressing.”
*****
